


Flights of Frenzy

by Eikaron



Category: RWBY
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, BAMF Clover, Bisexual Qrow, Fair Game established sexual relationship, Fluff, Gay Clover, Here‘s a better use of That Sunrise, Hope, Humour, M/M, NOzpin, chapter 12? never heard of it I don't know what you mean, clover lives, everything will be okay, if you're looking for a plot beyond a Dramatic Escape from Atlas it's definitely not here, slapstick action, they flirting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-07
Updated: 2020-03-07
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:07:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,788
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23056714
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eikaron/pseuds/Eikaron
Summary: During the Siege of Atlas RWBY, JNOR, Qrow and Maria escape once again in a stolen airship with the assistance of the Happy Huntresses and the addition of one Penny Polendina; former Protector of Mantle and current Winter Maiden and one Clover Ebi; former Ace Op and current deserter, missing in action and presumed dead by the Atlas military. Since global communications are still not re-established, fuel to go to Vacuo is sparse and the location of the Summer Maiden unknown the group decides to head to the next best place to rethink their course of action and take a much-needed break: Home.Right after they make it out of Atlas alive and in one piece. This turns out to be difficult.(Canon Divergent after V7E11, more details in the Notes inside)
Relationships: Minor or Background Relationship(s), Qrow Branwen/Clover Ebi
Comments: 13
Kudos: 101





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> The situation at hand:
> 
> Team RWBY has escaped arrest by the Ace Ops, Penny has become the new Winter Maiden, Ozpin did not permanently come back and the group is still in possession of the Lamp Relic. Clover defected and joined forces with Qrow and the others. Tyrian very briefly went to jail, but has since escaped. Evacuation in Mantle kept going despite orders to the contrary thanks to the Happy Huntresses and is now complete, with Schnee Manor opening its doors to a large number of faunus refugees at the behest of Willow Schnee. Whitley is now serving hot soup and hating it. Atlas is overflowing with Mantle refugees and under siege by unprecedented numbers of Grimm, though Salem's current location and plans are unknown for the time being. Thankfully, an as of yet unidentified member of the Atlas military has had presence of mind to secretly send a small messenger aircraft to Vale, alerting them to the situation at hand and asking for help, with troops arriving just in time to prevent the worst. (Marrow. It was Marrow. He hasn't been found out yet). Having been unable to retrieve the Staff of Creation and being wanted by General Ironwood for treason the group has to flee Atlas, taking the new Winter Maiden and Clover with them.

It is said that everything that can go wrong, will go wrong.

Clover had forgotten who exactly it was who had coined the phrase – some iconic Mistralian philosopher probably – but that didn't matter right now. What mattered right now was that it was the only thing going through his head while he held onto Kingfisher for dear life because Clover, it has to be stated, had never understood the saying quite as fully as he did in this very moment. Owing to the privilege of his semblance his experiences had for most of his life been rather different: For him, everything that could go right usually did.

Apparently those days were over.

“AAAAAAH! UP! UP!”, he screamed as the digital billboard came rapidly closer, desperately trying to reach the automatic reel on his weapon and activate it without letting go and dropping to his potential death.

High above him several other voices responded with panicked shouts and bellows of their own: “UP! UP! MARIA! UUUUUP!” “HE'S GONNA CRASH INTO THAT BOARD!” “RUBY NO YOU'RE OUT OF AURA!” “THE LINE! HOLD THE LINE, THE HOOK IS COMING LOSE! “PULL UP! UP DAMMIT!”

Despite their obvious volume the shouts were barely audible to Clover in the complete bedlam of drones, tanks, airships, rapid weapon fire and howling Grimm. Thankfully they were apparently audible enough for the pilot. Whoever she was she also seemed to be in possession of very good reflexes, as the airship almost immediately let out a loud roar and shot straight up, dragging Clover along with it through the air on the taut line of Kingfisher; the sudden jolt on his arms making his shoulders scream and his knuckles go white.

Robyn Hill's ridiculously large face filled his entire vision.

Clover pulled up his legs at the very last second, the heels of his boots scraping a thin layer of ice and freshly fallen snow off the top of the billboard.

He permitted himself to exhale. That had been a close call. His heart was hammering in his chest.

“HOLD ON CLOVER, WE'LL GET YOU!”, came Qrow's voice shouting from above.

“THAT WOULD BE GREAT ANY CHANCE YOU COULD DO IT FASTER”, Clover yelled back in the airship's general direction.

“I AM WORKING ON IT, CLOVER! PLEASE HOLD OUT A LITTLE LONGER!”, was Penny's reply behind him, the robot girl covering their rear.

Heroically jumping out of their escape vessel before anyone could stop him and doubling back to disable the EMP stopping them from take off followed by dramatically scaling the highest building nearby in order to get himself back on the ship by means of running as fast as his legs would carry him along the roof while being shot at and vaulting off said building with a well-aimed throw of Kingfisher had seemed like a good idea at the time.

To be fair, it had worked.

Just not quite as Clover had intended.

Several laser beams cut through the cold air with deadly precision, taking out two Grimm attacking a group of Atlesian soldiers on the ground, their bright green light illuminating a number of apartment complexes flashing past him at high speed and too close for comfort.

Clover tried to look up in the vain hope of seeing what was going on, but with the way Maria's impressive evasive maneuvers kept him wildly swinging left, right, up, down, back and forward, spinning in a circle and occasionally all of it at once it was next to impossible. Whose idea it had been to fly invisible by means of May Marigold's semblance he did not know, but if he got out of this alive then there would be definitely be Words, because while this was admittedly very helpful in terms of not getting shot down by the Atlas military hot on their tails it had the unfortunate side-effect of making the Huntsman precariously dangling below it a prime accidental target for, well, everything.

Every single part of Clover's chest, shoulders, arms, hands and wrists was feeling completely numb by now. He was exceedingly glad that his choice of weapon meant he had built up a more than decent amount of muscle in his upper body, but even the best Huntsman training did not usually include holding onto the end of a fishing rod suspended from a speeding airship for extended periods of time. He'd be feeling that for weeks.

When Maria had to briefly slow down to avoid crashing into a group of winged Beringel, Clover made another attempt of getting a better grip on his weapon and triggering the reel on its handle that would zip him back up. As luck would have it he did.

As bad luck would have it, it was currently severely dented and therefore stuck.

The former Ace Op cursed under his breath. Then someone above him yelled “WATCH OUT!” and he looked up just in time to kick a drone out of his way with gritted teeth, the second one thankfully sliced expertly in half by Penny.

Clover was not sure how long he could keep going like this. He had engaged his defensive aura during the kick so he wouldn't break a leg, but considering that he had been forced to feed his semblance near-constantly since take off in order to avoid getting squished, squashed, sliced, speared or shot he had a feeling that he might soon be running low.

It occurred to Clover that everything that could go wrong had not, in fact, gone wrong just yet. The thought filled him with utter relief and utter dread in about equal amounts.

And then Maria was steering the airship right through the gap between the claws of two giant Nevermore and all of a sudden they were through, gusts of cold wind whipping him around as the Solitas tundra opened wide before them. Someone grabbed Clover under the arms and he was lifted up, up, up, Kingfisher still in his hands until he was level with the aircraft's open slide door and Penny dropped him unceremoniously into Qrow's waiting arms before landing much more elegantly herself with a heavy metallic thud.

“Thanks”, said Clover breathlessly from the floor, tumbled over in a heap of limbs with Qrow.

He lifted his head just in time to see Marigold give a mock salute to Ruby and jump out at the last possible moment, seconds before they were leaving the boundaries of Mantle behind them for good. The metal walls around them flickered briefly as her semblance gave out. They were visible again.

A pair of boots walked past his face, Yang stepping over his legs to slam the airship door shut and the sounds of the battle raging over Atlas and Mantle were cut off abruptly as they sped away into the night.

~*~

Clover let his head fall forward onto the hard and cold floor of the aircraft with a relieved sigh. To his right – and oddly close to his head – someone cleared his throat.

He suddenly realized he was still lying on top of Qrow. Well. At least this explained why his body was resting on a considerably softer surface than his head. It was very comfortable.

“Cloves?” Qrow patted his shoulders. “You, uh, you okay?”

“No”, he groaned.

“Can you get up?”

“No”, said Clover, but rolled over nevertheless.

He lay on the airship's floor like a rag doll, the concerned faces of team RWBY, JNOR and Penny peering down at him.

Qrow got to his feet and held out a hand for Clover, who regarded it with raised eyebrows and polite interest for several seconds without taking it until upon everybody's mildly baffled looks he sighed and explained: “Qrow, I appreciate the offer, but I literally can't move my arms at the moment. They're cramped.”

He looked pointedly at his left hand still tightened around Kingfisher's handle, unable to let go.

“Oh!”, Qrow blurted out and hastily bent down to slide one of Clover's limp arms over his shoulders to help him up.

He gestured for Ren to do the same on the other side and together they lifted Clover to his feet and deposited him onto a bench, all of them nearly stumbling when the airship gave an unexpected lurch.

“Thanks”, said Clover gratefully, leaning back against the wall.

He tried to move his fingers with minimal success.

“Here, let me”, mumbled Qrow, kneeled down before Clover and reached out to gently pry Kingfisher loose from the stiff, icy fingers, massaging them to get the blood flowing again. Even projected aura had its limits.

The airship lurched again. This time Qrow actually lost his balance, landing with his head neatly in Clover's lap. They both flushed. However, before any of them could say anything about it Maria was already yelling from the cockpit: “Will you all strap in already?! There's still Grimm around and we've not reached comfortable cruising altitude yet!”

Ren hastened to sit down on the bench opposite from Qrow and Clover, pulling Nora down with him.

“You too, boy. I can take it from here”, Maria told Jaune, who Clover only now saw was standing behind her with one hand on her shoulder, the other clamped around his mouth. “Though I gotta say, I could get used to this.”

“No thanks”, groaned Jaune and made his way back to the benches on unsteady feet, helped along by Weiss and Ruby. Clover shuffled along to make space next to him. Yang and Blake were already buckling themselves in with Ren and Nora, while Oscar was heading to the front after a questioning look at Qrow, who'd nodded encouragingly.

Upon seeing Clover's puzzled frown at Jaune Qrow explained: “Maria's semblance is... well, it's kind of like seeing into the future a little bit. She can react to things even before they happen” He drew his brows together trying to think of a good description as he gently coaxed Clover's finger joints into cooperating again. “Think very fast reflexes”, he said just as Clover finally managed to open his hand enough to let go of Kingfisher with a pained groan.

“They're called Preflexes”, Maria called back over her shoulder as Oscar slid into the co-pilot's seat beside her, “And Wonder Boy's semblance here gave me an extra boost. That's some amazing ability you've got there, do you know that?”

Jaune merely responded with a dry retching sound and a faint 'Thanks', at last giving in to the motion sickness he had been fighting the entire time.

Clover's eyebrows shot up.

“No wonder you were flying so well!”, he exclaimed with genuine fascination.

The comment was immediately followed by another dry retching sound from Jaune. Ruby patted him sympathetically on the back.

“It's going to be alright, Jaune. Good thing none of us have eaten all day, right? And hey, we made it.” She looked up to smile at Clover. “All of us.”

“All of us”, he repeated, returning her smile.

“How are you feeling, Clover?”, Penny asked concernedly, “Are you alright?”

“Don't worry”, Clover told her reassuringly. “I'll be fine in a minute or two. Just a bit numb. Qrow's already taking good care of me. I think I might be starting to feel a tingle in my fingers”, he added, looking down at his uselessly hanging arms.

Qrow blushed and grumbled something incomprehensible, but didn't stop rubbing his thumbs in strong circles over Clover's biceps to get the blood flowing again.

“You should sit down too, Penny”, he then said, looking around and realizing there were only eight seatbelts in the aircraft and they were all taken. “Dammit, we don't have enough seats.”

“Thank you for concern, Qrow, but I am fine!”, replied Penny. ”My magnetic boots allow me to stand safely on any metal surface.”

“Huh. Alright”, said Qrow, clearly not entirely convinced, but reluctantly accepting the fact that there wasn't much to be done about it at the moment.

Penny nodded and turned to address Clover.

“Clover, I would like you to know that holding onto Kingfisher like you did during our evasive maneuvers was very impressive”, she said with utmost sincerity, “I was afraid I might not get to you in time. Your stamina is commendable.”

“Thank you, Penny”, he told her. “And... thanks for saving me”, he chuckled.

“You're very welcome”, she responded warmly and it was upon these words that everyone's shoulders finally relaxed.

Frowns smoothed out for the first time in hours, giving way to exchanges of relieved looks and a shimmer of hope. Yang's perpetual scowl morphed into a softer expression as she took Blake's hand. Nora rested her head on Ren's shoulder, closing her eyes. Weiss put her arm around Ruby, hugging her. Clover glanced at Qrow's head leaning against his knee and he, too, smiled.

They had made it.

For now, at least.


	2. Chapter 2

“How're your arms?”, asked Qrow roughly, once they were finally past the last line of stray Grimm.

Clover carefully flexed his fingers and rotated his shoulders. Everything was still a little stiff and tense and he was sure he could feel every single muscle in his arms, but at least his limbs had stopped feeling completely numb and the circulation had resumed enough for him to move them more or less normally.

“Like shit”, said Clover honestly, “but I'm alright. Just going to be feeling that for a while.”

“Perhaps Qrow could massage you some more once we're at a safe location”, suggested Penny. “He seems to have quite the aptitude for it!”

Qrow and Clover exchanged a glance, both immediately knowing the other was thinking about the same thing. Clover bit his lip to keep himself from grinning too much or making a flirty quip.

“Heh, I'd say Clover's the one with the actual massage skills”, drawled Qrow, “But I can certainly try.”

He winked at the surprised Clover, flashing him a brief, dirty smirk, and Clover had to hold a fist up to his mouth to stop himself from laughing out loud.

“That's... very kind of you, Qrow”, he chortled.

The kids' exchanged confused looks, but neither man elaborated. What had happened at Widow's Peak watch tower was between them and the blizzard.

Later, once they had – as Maria had put it – reached cruising altitude, Clover unbuckled himself and made his way to the cockpit, offering to take over. Unsurprisingly Maria point blank refused to relinquish the controls to anyone, but he felt he had at least made a good faith effort.

Clover decided to stay in the cockpit regardless, looking at the cold wasteland below through the ship's ice-crusted windshield with a heavy heart, when something occurred to him and he leaned down to talk to Maria again.

„Since we haven’t actually decided where to go yet: Do you think we could we make a quick pitstop on top of that mountain?“, he asked the old woman quietly, indicating a fairly distinct peak ahead of them.

„You mean the one that’s shaped like a sitting Nevermore?“, inquired Maria, squinting into the direction he was pointing.

„Yes.“

Maria contemplated this request for about 0.5 seconds, then shrugged, said „Eh, why not!“ and gleefully yanked the control stick to the left without warning, causing everyone in the back to topple over and slam into each other over under shouts and curses. „It’s not like we have another plan at the moment. Why, what’s up there?“

Clover smiled wistfully.

„It’s... nothing in particular. Just something I want to show you guys before we leave Atlas for good“, he said cryptically.

“Hey, why the sudden course change?”, Qrow asked from the bench seat he had taken over from Clover. “Where're we going?”

“It's a surprise!”, said Maria cheerfully.

Next to her, Oscar sighed.

“Please tell me it's a good one for a change”, he told Clover soulfully.

Clover laughed.

“It is”, he said softly. “I promise you'll like it.”

As soon they touched down on top of the mountain‘s 'beak', Clover shuffled everyone out into the grey twilight of impending dawn. Their timing couldn’t have been better: The first rays of yellow–gold sunlight were peeking out from behind the horizon, the tundra glittering in the faintest tinge of pink.

„Uh. Why are we here, exactly?“, inquired Nora tiredly, leaning against a similarly exhausted-looking Ren for support.

„Yeah, we should get some distance between us and Atlas“, said Ruby.

„First of all we need to decide on a destination“, Weiss pointed out.

„Patch“, said Qrow simply, as if it had already been decided.

„Home?“, asked Yang, her brows drawing together. She crossed her arms. „I thought we were heading straight to Vacuo.”

„We are“, her uncle explained. „Eventually. We don’t have enough fuel right now. It's about a fourteen-hour flight from here and we can’t make that kinda trip in one go. We can do the seven hours it takes to go to Vale and stock up there. Figured we might as well go home for a bit. Get some rest.“

„Oh and you just decided that without consulting us, did you?!“, Yang flared up, only to immediately be told off by Maria for being a disrespectful brat, causing Weiss to fly to her defense, leading to Qrow trying to shut them all down.

Ren made an futile attempt to intervene and get everybody to calm down only to be yelled at by Nora and the next thing Clover knew a fully blown argument had broken out in the group; the tension that had been holding them all hostage violently erupting like a volcano slumbering under the surface. He watched nervously as they all bickered with each other, not wanting to butt in and make it worse. Beside him, Blake sighed.

Then she took a deep breath and shouted, louder than Clover had ever heard her: “EVERYONE CUT IT OUT!”

The arguing stopped almost as soon as she had spoken. Heads turned to look at her. There was something eerie about the usually quiet and reserved faunus girl raising her voice, like something had gone wrong with the world.

“Please”, she said, dropping down to her normal volume. “We can't afford to argue like this.”

Clover watched with fascination as the group's fighting seamlessly transitioned into embarrassed shuffling and grumbling agreement. Impressive, he thought.

„Why are we here, Clover?“, Blake asked him softly and he directed his attention back to her.

„Well... No matter where we'll go from here“, he began carefully, looking at each of their tired, angry, shaken faces before he continued, “This might be the last time any of us sees Atlas in a very long time.“ The 'or forever' was left unspoken. „And I figured it would be nice if we all left with at least one good memory of it. So...“

Clover stepped aside and turned to face the tundra, holding out his arm as if presenting something. The others followed his gaze and, as one, fell into awed silence. Quite without any of them noticing the morning sun had slowly made its way close to the horizon and – though still hidden beneath it – was bathing the Solitas tundra in a cascade of colors; a beautiful gradient spanning all the way from breathtaking pink skies speckled with orange clouds to the purple dusk of faraway mountains and the blueish hues of the ice covering the ground.

None of them felt the need to talk further as they settled down and watched the sun begin its ascent over the dark mountain ridges; content, for the moment, to simply exist and enjoy the view. Yang and Blake were holding each other, as were Nora and Ren. Jaune had put an arm around Oscar's shoulder and Clover was glad to see Ruby and Weiss each having taken one of Penny's arms in a gesture of comfort. Only Maria was on her own, sitting in the open doorway of the aircraft with her feet dangling in the air, but she did not seem to mind.

Clover snuck a glance at Qrow sitting beside him, smiling when he saw the man‘s relaxed face and blushing when he caught Qrow returning his gaze. Their shoulders brushed. Clover looked down at their hands resting next to each other in the snow, almost but not quite touching. When the sun had risen nearly halfway, its tip reaching the same height as the nearest peak, he slipped his hand a little bit closer towards Qrow’s, their pinkies brushing against each other in a feather light touch. Qrow's hand moved almost imperceptibly in return until their fingers touched along their entire length, hot skin against cold snow underneath.

Clover turned to look towards the sun again. It was almost up, the dark pink of the sky fading to pale rosé, blue at the edges.

The distant screech of a solitary Nevermore rang over the tundra.

They knew it was time.

“We need to leave”, said Yang brusquely.

No one replied, but they all stood up nevertheless. Heavy, solemn silence hung over the group and Qrow briefly squeezed Clover's shoulder before he, too, headed towards the aircraft.

“Wait”, said Clover, stopping in his tracks. “There is... one more thing.”

Qrow took a quick glance at the kids, who were quietly filing back into the airship before he turned back towards Clover. Impassively he watched as Clover removed the four-leaf-clover badge from his lapels and slipped it into his pants, then opened the belt around his waist. He looked around for a place to put it, when he saw Qrow holding out a hand expectantly. Gratefully, Clover handed him the belt to hold, followed by his turned-off scroll and everything he was carrying in his vest pockets before he slipped out of it. Wearing only his grey shirt he held up the piece of uniform he had worn for so long and looked at it. It had become almost a second skin.

He lifted his head to find Qrow regarding him with an unreadable expression, still holding Clover's effects. A brief glance towards the airship showed everyone else already strapped in. Waiting. Yang's eyes were narrowed slightly, watching him, as were Nora's. Jaune and Ruby looked worried, Blake and Penny serious. Oscar avoided his gaze. Weiss merely looked tired and Ren's face betrayed nothing at all.

At long last Clover let the uniform drop into the snow to his feet, its coat tails fluttering in the wind. He took a deep breath and dug the deactivated com out of his ear. He stared at it for a long, heavy second before he drew back his arm and threw it as far away as he could. A weight he hadn't noticed he was carrying lifted from his heart. He exhaled.

There was no turning back.

“Let's go”, he said.


End file.
